Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman to go to space, died on February 1, 2003 while returning from space.
Kalpana often used to say that I was made for space, I will spend every moment for space and would die for that. This point, in the end, proved true for her too. She made her second space trip at the age of 41, which resulted in an unfortunate accident while returning to the Earth.
Kalpana Chawla was born in the house of Banarasi Lal Chawla at Karnal, Haryana on March 17, 1962. She was the youngest of her four brothers and sisters. She was affectionately known as Montu in the house. Kalpana had expressed her desire to become an engineer to her father during the 8th class, but her father wanted her to become a doctor or teacher. Her early studies took place at Tagore Bal Niketan, Karnal. After schooling, Kalpana completed her graduation at Punjab Engineering College, 1982.
She then moved to the United States and studied at the University of Texas in 1984, joined NASA as an astronaut in 1995, and was selected for her maiden flight in 1998. It is said Kalpana was never afraid of failure.
Kalpana Chawla’s was returning from 2nd space voyage
The unfortunate accident occurred when her plane was returning to earth from a successful voyage. Scientists said that when the spaceship Colombia entered the Earth’s atmosphere, its insulated layers started to explode and the vehicle’s temperature increased resulting in this unfortunate incident.
